Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1887-04-30
FRANCES AND DEATH.
Why People Go Not Recover Consciousness In TIL
Grave.


ing buried alive" said DR.. W. A.
Hammond. A Herald reporter had
called on him in reference to the buri-
nj alive OF Miss Stirkney, OF Indian
apolis, who was taken out OF q vault
and found to be in trance-state, and
did net die until several weeks after
her funeral.
"No," he continued, "there is no ex-
cuse for II. The tests of death have
been brought down to such a point
that any competent physician would
have no difficulty in accurately deter
mining whether or not death had tax
ell place"
Does decomposition always set in
after DEATH"
Invariably. provided the body is
not frozen. OF course you can freeze
it and keep it for years before 1t will
decompose-just as fish are Kept
Fl ozen for market. The salmon that
YOU eat now were caught last spring,
and have been kept frozen ever since.
They are just as good"
"Do you imagine that there Is any
foundation to the belief of many that
people are sometimes buried alive"
ooh, | have no doubt Of it. have
known OF its being done, but it is not
by any means offrequent occurrence
not nearly so frequent as many peo-
pie imagine The physician is entirely
to blame when It does occur. The
fact that bodies have been found turn
I'd 4, yer in the collins lead people to
believe that they were buried alive.
But that's not so. 1t is probably the
work OF the gases coming from the
body. Pent up in coffin they be-
come very powerful, and 1T Is almost
singular that they do not move
bodies around more than they do"
"Then you don't take any stock in
the stories OF men VINO come TO
life under the ground, OF their terrible
struggles to get free, and their horrible
death at last?"
"That's all bosh. Poe wrote ofgrave-
wards trembling with the struggles OF
the buried alive. That's all bosh, too.
Wher people are buried alive, as they
cert ainly have been, they never wake
up to knowit. When in a trance state
their vitality must be so weak that
when they begin to regain conscious
ness and to attempt to breathe they
die OF suffocatian Immediately and
never know that they came to life
again. Buried for dead, they practi-
cally are dead.
That's consoling, at any rate"
said the reporter, who was beginning
to feel little creepy" in the gloomy
room, that in his distorted magma
ton began to seem like the interior OF
n tomb. The doctor did not look I'M
like Father Time as he waved his
cimeter.
"This Miss Stickney was undoubt-
edly in q trance-state when she was
buried" continued DIR. Hammond.
Were it not for the water around her
heart she might have regained con.
seriousness"
us it possible to freeze human be-
ing up for any length OF time and then
restore consciousness"
mo; not with n human being. 1t
can be done with some ofthe lower or
der of animals. Frogs are the highest
Grade TO which it can be carried sue
cessfully."
"Why can't 1T be done to mem"
Because. no matter how warm or
how cold the atmosphere is, the tenn
perature of a human being in good
health is always % degrees in life Re-
duce that temperature to the freezing
point and it would kill the person.
Now, the temperature of frog is al
ways the same as the surrounding
air. ii the mercury goes up to 10 de-
grees the frogs temperature goes up
there, too, without doing him any
harm. In the same way 1t will 90
down to zero and the frog will not
mind it. have frozen a frog solid in
block OF ice, and alter some time
thawed him out, and he would Jump
all around the room. A frog is very
hard to kill. You can take his heart
out and ne willstill live. Cut his head
of, tickle him on one side with q straw,
and he will draw up the leg on tina.
eide and push the straw away"
Is that purely mechanical action"
mo; it's because frogs brains are
not all in his head; some OF them are
IN his spinal column, and it is the lat.
ter that directs his legs. For that
matter, believe the brains of a hui
man being are not all in the head either.
Aglrl plays the piano and carries or
a conversation at the same time The
brains in her spine govern the action
OF her hands, and the brains in her
head allows her to talk"
'ls it possible for men to 90 into
frances that could be mistaken for
death?'
"Yes; it is quite certain that appar.
ent cessation of all the vital functions
may take place without the entire loss
OF vitality, which would leave the or
ganism IN the condition of a dead
body to be speedily disintegrated by
the operation OF chemical or
physical agencies. The state OF syn.
cope IS at times so complete that the
hearts action can not be perceived
nor any respiratory movements he
observed, all power of movement be-
ING Tor the time abolished, and vet re.
eovery has spontaneously taxed place,
which could scarcely he the case il ali
vital action had been suspended. The
best authenticated case OF this kind
| Us that OF Col. Townsend that occur.
red IN the early part OF this century.
sight.
1T is described by DIR. George
Sheyne, who was an eyewitness, He
says the Colonel possessed the re.
narkaoie faculty OF throwing himself